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Monday, February 28, 2011

Wikipedia's "Scholasticism" - A Piece of Rubbish

Wikipedia's "Scholasticism" - A Piece of Rubbish

Dear Scholastic Thomists,

I usually pay little to no attention to errors and misinformation in wikipedia articles, because its democratic approach to truth is as nonsensical as the relativism that it presupposes. But the fact remains that people do go to Wikipedia for basic information (including myself, for topics with which I'm unfamiliar at least), so when Wikipedia misrepresents an important Catholic topic, we must not ignore it.

1) The English article does have a fairly decent, albeit selective and incomplete, historical exposition of the early and high scholastic movements. Yet, strangely, it leaves later Scholasticism (14th-20th centuries) for other articles, as if these did not belong to the subject of scholasticism. I would say that these centuries represent the most interesting part of the history of Scholasticism!

2) The reference to a "Second Scholatsicism" perpetuates the myth of the discontinuity of Scholasticism, in particular the supposed 'decline of Scholasticism' after Ockham and its sudden reappearance after Trent; similarly, its reference to "Neo-Scholasticism" perpetuates the same myth, insofar as it gives the impression that Scholasticism somehow disappeared after the "Second Scholasticism" and was resurrected by Pope Leo XIII. Sed contra, Scholasticism has always been practiced with varying degrees of enthusiasm since St. Anselm, at least until Vatican II; cf. the chronology of authors at the bottom of the Catholic Encyclopedia article on Thomism.

3) "Post-Thomistic Scholasticism." Since when did Scholasticism outlive Thomism? If anything, the opposite has been the case: Thomism has outlived Scholasticism, in the sense that, today, scholasticism is (practically) dead and Thomism lives on. That's just about the whole point of my blog: to say that we need to be, not "Existential" Thomists, or "Analytical" Thomists, or "Historical" Thomists, but we need to abandon all that novelty go back to traditional, i.e., Scholastic Thomism (or what our enemies and detractors mockingly call "Thomism of the Strict Observance" or "Barroque Thomism"). Or, to use Fr. Z's glorious expression, we need to be "ossified unreconstructed manualists" (Fr. Z, can you tell I want one of those mugs?). I propose that this section of the article be renamed Post-Scholastic Thomism.

4) That same section has questionable content. It says, as of today (?!):

"Still, those who had learned Scholastic philosophy continued to have unresolved questions about how the insights of the medieval synthesis could be applied to contemporary problems. This conversation left the academic environment for internet discussion groups such as Aquinas,[13] Christian Philosophy,[14] and Thomism,[15] and websites such as Open Philosophy,[16] where it continues today."

That first sentence is poppycock. It is an implicit universal affirmative, as in "all those...." Some of us don't: we know that the 'medieval synthesis' (i.e., Thomism), at least in its principles, is universally true for all ages, regardless of what 'contemporary problems' might arise. And the second sentence is guilty of being obvious propaganda for those discussion groups (I'm not jealous, I promise). It goes against Wikipedia rules to do this. But if you're going to do it, why not advertise something more serious, like the Societas Scholasticorum, which is not a mere 'internet discussion group' but a non-profit organization for the restoration of Scholasticism. Plus, the scholastic-thomistic 'conversation' has not left the academic environment. There has always been a handful of scholastic Thomists in academia, even throughout the post-conciliar crisis. We might not be the hotshots of the academic world, and we certainly are not appreciated by our less-conservative colleagues, but we are there nonetheless, a thorn on their sides.

5) "Analytical Scholasticism". That's just an oxymoron. Maybe they mean "Analytical Thomism." But, apart from its merits, Analytical Thomism (if it can be called 'Thomism' at all) does not follow the scholastic method. Period. We must not confuse Thomism with Scholasticism. And, assuming that Analytical Thomism is (a version of?) Thomism, we cannot therefore conclude that it is "Analytical Scholasticism."

6) The Scholastic Method. This section in particular has made me sad, given the energy I'm putting into teaching the scholastic method in the Quaestiones Disputatae Forum. It describes what is actually the lectio element of scholasticism, or what has also be called 'positive theology' in the modern manuals. But what makes scholasticism scholaticism is not positive theology, but the disputatio element, or in modern terms, scholastic theology, i.e., the element that seeks to derive theological conclusions from the articles of the faith (discovered by positive theology) by means of demonstrative syllogisms. This information does not come until the last section, called "Scholastic Instruction" (different from "The Scholastic Method"). The information is not detailed.

7) What to do? I propose that we, traditional-minded Thomists, make a collaborative effort to re-write that article altogether. We should especially give examples of scholastic argumentation. What say you!?